Elements in Harmony
by Cyberwraith9
Summary: An ancient threat returns, sending Twilight and her friends across Equestria to learn what it means to be an Element before their world is lost in darkness.
1. A Dream Revisited

_The six stood at the edge of the cliff, watching the featureless night sky. Grass crackled under their hooves, grass so brown that it was almost black. The bare tree branches couldn't spare a leaf to rustle, even if there had been a wind. Not a bird stirred. Not a creature scurried. Silence stretched from horizon to horizon._

_ Blueberry watched as tendrils reached down from the sky. The pure shadow poured into the ground in columns as thick and broad as whole cities, becoming the black veins that crawled through their farmlands and blackened their crops. The once fertile soil throbbed with poison. Their crops lay withered, corn and wheat that were nothing more than dried husks._

_ "There's no sky," Blueberry murmured. "No stars. How could it take away the stars?"_

_ Cold eyes narrowed at the freckled earth pony, framed by a dark helmet and ruffling feathers. "It's taken everything else," Thunder Strike snapped, and flexed his wings. "Why should the sky be any different?"_

_ The other pegasus with him shook his head. Unlike Thunder Strike, he had no brush on his helmet, but had instead three times as much history scored into his armor. A set of golden chevrons hung unmarred amidst the cracks and scuffs of the plate mail. "It came from the sky in the first place, and we haven't seen stars or sun since it arrived," said Sky Steel. The heavy bags under his eyes attested to his personal witness. He hadn't slept since the sky went dark._

_ "Likely a great relief to the unicorns," Thunder Strike grumbled. Scorn jetted from his nostrils._

_ An indignant gasp arose from one of the horned ponies at the edge of their gathering. "That isn't fair," Lily Willow insisted, stamping her delicate hoof. "The unicorns have been working harder than anyone to solve this crisis! And we've lost just as much as any earth pony or pegasus!"_

_ "Nopony's saying otherwise, li'l darling," Ponderosa assured her. He swept the sweaty green mane out of his face and cringed at the sight of their devastated crops. Months of hard work lay in a brown, rotting carpet that stretched as far as he could see. The very sight of it almost drove him to tears, but he buried the feeling, and put on a brave face. "Baby Feathers here is just worried that everypony will forget how tough pegasi really are for not being able to wallop some big black cloud."_

_ Thunder Strike bristled to the point of throwing his helmet. He shoved the offending headwear up, revealing a furious expression aimed at the flippant earth pony. "How dare you, you…you miserable serf! I am a lieutenant of the proud pegasi army! And lest you forget, Cumulopolis was the first city to be hit! We were fighting this enemy well before you dirt-dwelling—!"_

_ "Hey!" Blueberry thrust her plump, indignant face into Thunder Strike's, stopping the towering pegasus cold. "Just because you live above us doesn't mean that you're above us! I mean, you're obviously above us, but that doesn't make you better! Just higher! Except for right now, or whenever else you're on the ground. Which is where we live! So if the ground is good enough for us, it's good enough for you, which means it's good enough for us…" The red anger faded from her blue features. "What was I talking about?" she asked._

_ "Enough."_

_ The word dropped among them like an iron hammer. Instantly, the five fell silent, looking to the unicorn that stood apart from them. His white coat was streaked with soot and dirt. Weeks' worth of grizzle colored his chin, masking the hard line of his mouth as he stared at the blank, black sky._

_ "It's listening to us," the unicorn told them. "It can hear us. And this is exactly what it wants."_

_ Sky Steel knitted his brows. "The sky wants us to bicker?"_

_ A smile cracked the unicorn's dark stubble. "In a manner of speaking, I suppose."_

_ His smile faded too soon. Lily Willow stepped forward to rest a concerned hoof on his shoulder. "Star Swirl," she said softly, "we're all starting to worry about you."_

_ "Not me," Ponderosa muttered. "I recognize a crazy pony when I see one. Just leave him in the root cellar for a couple of days, and he'll be right as rain. Works mostly every time."_

_ Lily Willow narrowed her eyes at the earth pony, and then gently turned Star Swirl's face toward hers. She stole his distant gaze away from the darkness. "Look at you. I've never seen you so unkempt." Her hoof teased his bristling cheek, and she smirked. "You know this plan will work. We've come too far and worked too hard to fail now."_

_ Closing his eyes, Star Swirl held her hoof against his face. A long, slow sigh deflated him. "Of course it will," he said, forcing conviction into his voice, if only for her sake. "Master Silver Moon won't let us down."_

_ "I wouldn't put too stock in the word of some old horn-headed coot," Sky Steel grunted. "I've heard unicorns promising everypony the sun and the moon with their magic since I was a colt. It's just a lot of hot air."_

_ Blueberry's head tilted. "But the unicorns do bring the sun and the moon."_

_ The older pegasus grimaced. "It's an expression."_

_ "But how does that work when it's also true?" Blueberry insisted. "Also, their magic makes hot air too. Isn't that how their hot air balloons work?"_

_ Sky Steel began to argue the point when a new sound pierced the silence behind them. A clunking noise echoed at them, almost inaudible. Their ears strained at the dead air. They might have sworn that the sound had been a collective imagining, until the clunk sounded again, ringing hollowly against the stone of the cliff._

_ The sound repeated every few seconds. It grew louder, climbing the rocky incline to where they stood. Soon they could hear three soft footfalls clicking between each clunk, repeating the rhythm. As they started back down the slope to investigate, they saw a frazzled gray mane crest the ridge. _

_ Star Swirl recognized the tangle of hair immediately and bowed his head in deference. "Master," he said. "It's good to see you."_

_ As he looked up, Star Swirl jolted back a step. His mentor had changed. They had only been separated a matter of weeks, but the old unicorn had grown much older. New lines creased Silver Moon's face, deepest around his slate gray eyes. He seemed thinner, almost spindly, beneath his heavy spangled cloak. His mane and tail both looked brittle enough to break if the wind decided to stir again. His three remaining legs trembled with the effort of climbing the incline._

_ Silver Moon's foreleg clunked as he stopped before the six gathered ponies. "Star Swirl. It is good to see you well, my faithful student. And it is even better to see you returned successful in your task. Are these they?"_

_ Star Swirl gaped at his master's foreleg. Above the knee, the leg was scorched black with patches of pinkish red scarring still fresh in his exposed skin. Below the knee sat a wooden peg strapped in place with hempen cords. _

_"Master! Your leg!" Star Swirl cried._

_ The unicorn's white, bushy eyebrows rose as he examined his prosthetic limb. He seemed surprised that his student would notice such a thing. "This? Don't concern yourself with this small trifle. The creature tried to infect me, and so I took measures to isolate the contagion. Now, introduce me to your new friends. I didn't teach you to be rude, my boy."_

_ Struggling for words, Star Swirl forced his eyes away from his old teacher's mangled leg. He turned to the other gathered ponies, and swept his hoof across the group. "Yes, master. These are the five you asked me to find. I'm sorry it took me so long."_

_ Lily Willow frowned in confusion. "Wait. Five?" she asked the other two unicorns._

_ "You took exactly as long as you needed," Silver Moon assured his student. Looking to the rest of the ponies, he said, "Thank you all for coming. I know the journey can't have been easy for any of you."_

_ "Easy or hard makes no difference," Thunder Strike said. "What matters is that this isn't a colossal waste of our time, you withered old maypole."_

_ With a grimace, Star Swirl gestured to the gruff pegasus. "I suppose I should start with Lieutenant Thunder Strike of the Third Division. He was nearly court-martialed when he held his entire squad back from an ordered retreat when one of his men broke ranks."_

_ Thunder Strike huffed, drawing himself taller and filling his armor with indignation. "I don't have to justify myself to you or anypony. I am responsible for everypony under my command, and I will not leave a single one behind. Period."_

_ As Silver Moon nodded in deference, Star Swirl pointed next to the other pegasus. "And of course, Sergeant Sky Steel of the Third Division. He was the pony who broke ranks."_

_ Indifference worked Sky Steel's mouth into a crooked line. His wings fluttered in a shrug as he said, "The delegation of unicorn dignitaries we were escorting fell behind while the creature was attacking us. Somepony had to make sure they didn't get themselves killed," he said, and smirked at the two abashed unicorns._

_ "That was scary," Blueberry said, shivering. "The sky almost ate you!"_

_ He shrugged again. "I gave my life to the cause a long time ago, ma'am. The only mystery left is finding out which cause is going to cash in those chips."_

_ "Blueberry," Star Swirl said, introducing the bright blue earth pony. "When we found her, she was running from other infected ponies and telling them knock-knock jokes."_

_ Blueberry nodded. "Nothing clears a room faster," she said sagely._

_ The other earth pony stepped forward, offering a dark brown hoof to the cloaked unicorn. "Howdy," he said._

_ Star Swirl cringed at the impropriety, even as Silver Moon shook the proffered hoof. "And Ponderosa, a ranger from the Evergreen Forest. He agreed to guide us out of the forest when we were lost and destitute. And, more tellingly," Star Swirl added, chagrined, "he kept to his agreement even after he found out how dangerous our mission truly was…when the creature infected the entire forest."_

_ "When I give my word, I keep my word," Ponderosa said. Bunching up his lips, he added, "Then again, I didn't really have anywhere else to go after the sky ate my forest, so…"_

_ Lily Willow stepped forward, trying as politely as possible to place herself in Silver Star's notice. "I'm sorry, Master," she squeaked. "Did you say five? Because Star Swirl said…"_

_ "Enough!" Thunder Strike barked, chasing every pony but Silver Moon back with the edge in his voice. He pawed the ground and looked straight up at the blackened sky. "Your unicorns have been making outlandish promises. Now, do you have a means of slaying this enemy or not?"_

_ Silver Moon smiled. "Slay it? No. I'm afraid nothing I know of has that kind of power."_

_ A smug smirk broke the lieutenant's anger. "Just as I suspected. I believe you owe me three bits, Sergeant," he said to his fellow pegasus._

_ "But," Silver Moon added before the pegasi could turn away, "you can do the next best thing and banish the entity back from whence it came. That is, if you're still interested."_

_ Ponderosa scoffed as the pegasi stopped in their tracks. "Shoot," the earth pony said, "if they ain't, then I'll take it."_

_ "It will require all of you." Silver Moon swept his cloak aside with his good hoof, revealing a saddlebag at his side. Metallic white magic opened the bag's clasp and drew forth five glistening shapes. "I asked Star Swirl to gather you because you each possess an attribute necessary to rid ourselves of the shadow that consumes our sky."_

_ As the objects drifted among them, each pony recognized Silver Moon's proffered gifts as a collection of necklaces. They were little more than stark metal chains, but each necklace was finished with an enormous gem whose color and clarity rivaled even the unicorn royalty's finest pieces._

_ Each octagonal gem glowed faintly with a unique color as it drifted toward a different pony. When Silver Moon's magic released the necklaces, they continued to float, held impossibly aloft by some different power._

_ Thunder Strike balked as the red gem attempted fix itself around his neck. As he jerked back, the necklace stopped. He glared at Silver Moon, waiting for some explanation, but the old unicorn remained silent. That maddening calm set Thunder Strike's teeth gnashing. He was well versed in the arrogance of unicorn mages, and he knew the price of a unicorn's "gift." He had seen their kind exacting tribute from the earth ponies all his life, and he was in no hurry to fall into the same arrangement._

_ But when he looked back to the necklace, his anger faded. The necklace hadn't moved. Were he a less rational pony, he might have sworn that the necklace was somehow waiting for him. Its chain was almost gossamer, not the thick shackles of servitude. When he looked again to Silver Moon, he saw no glimmer of satisfaction in the old pony's expression. The unicorn wore the same tired desperation he saw in all of their faces._

_ Holding his breath, Thunder Strike leaned forward and bowed his head. The necklace responded, lifting itself gently over his helmet, the red gem settling onto his breastplate. It flashed once, and then grew dark. He could barely feel its weight on his neck. But he gasped at the strong warmth now glowing in his chest, warmth that reached out of him toward the gem._

_ One by one, the other ponies accepted their necklaces. Ponderosa and Sky Steel examined their gems with mute curiosity. Their eyes widened as the same sensation of warmth blossomed inside of them. Blueberry giggled and pranced, watching her gem swing to and fro against her chest._

_ The last necklace and its shimmering pink gem settled itself around Lily Willow's neck. She looked between Star Swirl and Silver Moon in confusion. "But I don't understand, Master. Star Swirl told me that we were looking for four ponies. Why are there five gems?"_

_ "They aren't gems, Lily," Star Swirl said. He met each of their eyes, drawing the other ponies together. "Since the shadow appeared in the sky, I have been working to harness the strongest powers at our disposal. Magic alone is not enough to combat this threat. I came to realize that we needed to draw upon something older, something deeper, if we were to stand a chance._

_ "The finest unicorn craftsponies have labored for weeks to construct these crystals. Each crystal attunes itself to a different property. And so I sent my best pupils into the world to find a pony—__**the**__ pony—who most embodies each of the strongest properties of all ponykind," Silver Moon explained. "Honesty. Loyalty. Generosity. Laughter. And—"_

_ "—kindness," Star Swirl murmured, jolting Lily Willow. Only when he spoke did she realize that he had been watching her all throughout their mentor's lecture. "Silver Moon asked me to find five aspects. And I told you we only needed four because…" He swallowed. "Because I knew we could search the world ten times over and never find a pony as kind as you."_

_ Lily Willow stared, not known how to answer. Blueberry spoke instead, her eyes welling with tears as she cooed, "Aww!"_

_ Thunder Strike snorted. "Fine. You've spent weeks making jewelry while your errand ponies found us. But how do they work? And what are we supposed to do with them?"_

_ Silver Moon began to answer, but then stopped. He froze, becoming as unnaturally still as the world around them. His eyes narrowed at the black sky. With a sharp gesture, he swept aside the other half of his cloak, revealing his other saddlebag. He drew forth a golden circlet, instilled with a sixth gem. The magenta jewel glistened in the old unicorn's magic._

_ "Each crystal draws upon an attribute to create a kind of energy." Silver Moon told them, and lifted the crown. "This final catalyst will draw those energies together into one unified whole."_

_ Squinting at the circlet, Ponderosa said, "And which 'property' is that color?"_

_ Star Swirl answered with whispered reverence. "Magic."_

_ Thunder Strike slammed his hoof into the ground. His nostrils flared as he turned on the old unicorn. "A crown? A crown! I knew it! I knew this was all a trick! We've been brought here with promises of cross-tribe cooperation, and what do we find? Unicorns building weapons and using other ponies as mere tools. Typical unicorn trickery! If you think you can hold this solution over our heads to gain control over the proud—"_

_ "__**Enough**__."_

_ Silver Moon's voice reverberated through their bones, and beneath their feet, and buzzed in the air between them. Everypony fell silent in an instant._

_ The old unicorn sagged for a second, and then regained his footing. His wooden peg scraped against rock. "Enough. This is not an effort solely of the unicorns. Look around you, Lieutenant. You are six ponies. You are three tribes. But you must become something more."_

_ Blueberry frowned in confusion. "More? Like, will these doodads make us bigger? Ooh! Or do they multiply us? I've always wanted more of me!"_

_ "You would be the first," Sky Steel grumbled under his breath. Then, louder, he said, "What kind of fool weapon needs six ponies to wield?"_

_ "This is not a weapon," Silver Moon told the pegasus. "This is a unification. This is the purest expression of harmony our disparate tribes has ever managed. And we have only minutes to employ it before our world is lost forever."_

_ For a long moment, the other ponies remained silent. Then Ponderosa stepped forward and offered Silver Moon a grim nod. "Okay. So what do we do?"_

_ His horn leaned toward the cliff's edge. "Stand there. And when it begins, simply focus on being yourself. If Star Swirl believes in you, then I know this will work."_

_ One by one, the five bejeweled ponies stepped hesitantly toward the threshold of the cliff. Lily Willow hesitated, her hoof lingering on Star Swirl's side. He smiled and returned the gesture, and then urged her to go. _

_ Then Star Swirl turned to his mentor and bowed. "Good luck, master. I know you will save us," he said._

_ "Perhaps I could, Star Swirl," Silver Moon said, lifting his student's head with surprise. Star Swirl's surprise doubled as Silver Moon's circlet settled over the younger unicorn's brown mane. As Star Swirl gawked, touching the circlet on his head, Silver Moon explained, "But this was always meant for you, my faithful student."_

_ "B-B-But…" Star Swirl stammered._

_ Silver Moon smiled, and patted Star Swirl on the back. "Son, I am very old. My time is long since over. All I'm good for now is pretending to teach talented young unicorns about magic. I am the past, Star Swirl, and I am out of my element."_

_ "Master—"_

_ "Star Swirl." Silver Moon's false leg rapped hollowly on the rock, silencing the younger unicorn. He tilted his head again to the cliff's edge, where the other five ponies stood with uncertain expressions turned to the sky. "They're waiting for you. If we're to have any chance, we need you. Magic makes it all complete."_

_ The young unicorn felt his head sinking beneath the weight of the crown. He tried to see the magenta crystal set into the shining metal, but his eyes only found the endless black that had hung overhead for too long. "Silver Moon, I don't know if I can. I've never done anything like this," he said. _

_ His mentor's stern expression cracked with a smile. "Nopony has, Star Swirl. Go be the first." He looked up again sharply, his smile vanishing. His eyes narrowed. "Go. Hurry!"_

_ Star Swirl jumped at his mentor's insistent tone. He trotted to the cliff's edge, his hooves skittering at the precipice. The sprawling distance before him made his head swim. He felt his stomach churn, and wanted desperately to be anywhere else. _

_ But when he began to turn back, he saw Lily Willow standing beside him. The unicorn's soft gaze soothed the hurricane in his stomach, and gave him courage enough to turn his eyes back to the sky._

_ The other five ponies gathered close, and together, they stared out at the black expanse pouring into their land. For a long moment, Star Swirl drew a long breath and held it. He watched the columns pouring into the ground, spreading dark veins across the landscape. He focused on the fundamental wrongness of the sky, and the stillness. He let that feeling fill him._

_ Then he exhaled, and focused his thoughts on a single word._

Together_._

_ The warmth in his chest flared. It spread like a fire, consuming him. It filled every part of him, spilling out of his eyes. For the barest instant, he feared that the sensation was some malfunction of Silver Moon's crown artifact. He was terrified that it would burn him from the inside out and leave him a husk. But the sensation wasn't coming from the crown. It was being drawn to the crown. It came from him._

_ Every cell in his body blazed with the very notion of magic. He was energy and light personified, a being of pure arcane, more powerful than any unicorn had ever imagined. The edges of his vision went white as the focusing crystal drew forth more magic than he ever imagined his body could contain._

_ Then he felt the others. With a sideways glance, he saw the other ponies enveloped in that same white light. But more than that, he felt them. Those attributes he and Lily Willow had searched for weeks to find now bathed him from every direction, blending together into one blinding, unified whole. They were no longer six ponies._

_ They were harmony._

_ Star Swirl felt their essences coalesce into a whorl of colors. The energy never fought him. It flowed through him, as natural as breathing, and as light as a song. It filled every part of him with a profound sense of peace. It became the piece of him he never knew he had lacked. He grasped the energy and aimed it toward the black sky, and smiled. They all smiled._

_ And as the energy burgeoned among them, ready to leap into the blackness, Star Swirl could have sworn he saw a sliver of red open in the sky above them, gaping like a long, jagged mouth._

* * *

Celestia awoke with a start. Her head jerked from the pillow as she kicked back her silken covers. Eyes wide, she looked wildly around her sprawling bedchambers, until at last her gaze fell upon the waxing moon hanging outside her window.

As she stared at the silver crescent, her ragged breathing stopped. She watched the moon and the halo of stars around it until her heartbeat stopped racing. She watched and waited, holding her breath, until she was sure that the night sky wouldn't move. Only then did she exhale in a long, slow sigh.

She rose from her bed and walked out to her balcony. The cool night air chased away the sweat clinging to her coat. She shivered, not at the night, but at what lay far, far beyond it.

Closing her eyes, Celestia bowed her head and turned back into her chambers. The tussled bed lay open and inviting to her weary bones, but she knew she wouldn't sleep again that night. She stepped to her vanity mirror and brushed her flickering hair into shape. Her magic lifted the tiara to her brow as she left to walk the castle grounds.

A walk through the garden never failed to clear her head. A visit to the ballroom always reminded her of happier times. Even the castle corridors felt reassuring during hard times. The castle itself represented the history of Equestria. It was one of the few landmarks even older than its princesses. Celestia took great comfort in the idea of things that had endured longer than she had, knowing that they might endure after she was gone.

And so it came as no surprise when Celestia found herself walking among the stained glass windows that led to the Vault of Harmony.

The greatest chapters of Equestria glowed in the moonlight. She stopped beneath the older windows, admiring the early moments she and her sister hadn't witnessed personally. The history of her country spilled across the tile floor, dyeing her white coat with the colors of their country's greatest heroes.

The newest window, though, was the only one that elicited her smile. Celestia stood beneath the window, watching the frozen image of six ponies harnessing the power of the Elements to banish Discord back into his stone prison. The image of her student's finest victory gave Celestia a small grin that she desperately needed. She savored the smile. It reminded her that newer moments were just as important as the foundation of their history.

"Princess?"

Shining Armor's surprised voice drew her away from the window. The captain of the Canterlot guard walked into the hall, followed by two pegasi in flight plate armor. All three ponies bowed before Celestia, and then straightened at her nod. The pegasi stepped back as their captain tentatively approached the princess.

"Your highness? Is everything all right?" Shining Armor swept the helmet from his head. The stained moonlight painted his concerned expression in a swath of colors. "I wasn't told of any inspection, and certainly not a royal inspection. Uh, not that your presence is an issue," he said quickly. "We're just under strict orders from your sister not to bother you during the night under penalty of…something too horrible to mention in polite company."

Celestia smiled at the nervous unicorn. "Please, Captain, at ease. This is no inspection. And I'm relatively certain that Luna need not concern herself with punishing anyone. I'm simply taking a stroll to clear my head."

"Of course, your highness. Gentlecolts, you're dismissed," Shining Armor told his guards. The pegasi saluted and marched back the way they had come. After the doors closed behind them, Shining Armor turned back to the princess. "I was just conferring with my lieutenants during a regular patrol. Is there some issue I should be aware of? Is something wrong?"

She added a forced chuckle to her forced smile. "Captain, please. I told you, this is just a walk. I'm afraid that even princesses are subject to occasional bouts of insomnia. You might be surprised at the number of sleepless nights that accumulate over the millennia."

He managed a chuckle. "I know a few things about sleepless nights…er, Princess," he said, bowing his head in abashment.

"You should take care, Captain. Your wife would likely not appreciate your complaining of any sleepless nights." Celestia delighted in the red embarrassment filling Shining Armor's cheeks. She took mercy on him, and patted his shoulder. "And how are you enjoying your new wedded bliss?"

Some of the color drained from his face. "Your niece and I couldn't be happier, Princess. Since we got back from our honeymoon in Trottingham, we've been growing closer than ever before."

"So," Celestia said, "You've been fighting?"

"…constantly. About everything," Shining Armor admitted. He rubbed his face, dragging at the bags under his eyes. "Before we got married, I never would have imagined you could fight about which cabinet the flatware goes in. It's been quite the learning experience for both of us…er, Princess," he added again.

She chuckled. "I believe you, just as I believe how happy you both are," Celestia assured her captain. She began walking to the end of the corridor, and gestured for him to follow. "I've never seen Cadance so giddy. I'm overjoyed for the both of you."

"Thank you, Princess. But…" Shining Armor hesitated a step, falling behind. He stopped beneath the mural of Star Swirl the Bearded's last stand against the Dragon Hegemony. The red light cast by King Inferno's stained glass likeness painted the unicorn with concern. "Are you certain that nothing is amiss? Forgive my presumption, but your highness is not one who breaks her routine without a reason. I don't mean to pry, but given our recent security issues…"

They stopped at the vault doors. Shining Armor started to turn around, ready to continue his query. But he stopped again, looking back as he noticed that Celestia had not followed. The Princess stood at the cusp of the vault with her back to the captain.

Shining Armor quirked his head. "Princess?" he asked.

Celestia lowered her horn to the Vault's lock. A soft pulse of magic teased the aperture, bringing the door's runes to light. The sliver of magic wasn't enough to open the doors, but through the active protection spells, she could feel six distinct artifacts contained safely inside. The Elements of Harmony answered her silent call with one of their own. It was a brief whisper, hardly a fraction of their true power, but it gave comfort to Celestia's growing dread.

She drew her horn back from the doors. The Vault's runes grew dark once more as she turned and nodded. "Simply perform your duties to your own exemplary standards, Captain. Although, I would appreciate if you could assign a small detail to the Vault of Harmony for the night."

He nodded, silently relieved that his concerns had been acknowledged, even in some small way. "I'll have my best men stand watch on the Vault until you order otherwise, Princess."

"Thank you, Captain. And please," Celestia said as she turned to leave, "give Cadance my best, won't you?"

"Of course, your highness. But I suspect Cadance would prefer it if her aunts paid their respects in person," Shining Armor said. "We would be honored if you and Princess Luna would grace us with a visit."

"Honored as Captain of the Guards, perhaps," Celestia teased. "But I think you'll find that, as a new husband, you might not be so eager for a visit from your in-laws."

She bid him goodnight and left him dumbfounded in the corridor.

* * *

"So I see the gossip is true," Luna said, watching Celestia emerge from the parapet stairwell. "My sister has resumed prowling around the castle to keep watch over her younger sibling, lest she become the dreaded Nightmare Moon once more."

Celestia joined her sister atop the castle's tallest tower. "You know I don't do that…anymore." Then she stopped and raised an eyebrow. "Wait? Who gossips at this time of night?"

"Your guards can be surprisingly chatty for such a gruff bunch," Luna said. Her mischievous glance pierced the gossamer veil of her hair. But seeing Celestia's face sobered her at once. "Celestia? Is something wrong?"

The wind caught Celestia's mane and carried it over the wall as she walked to the edge of the parapet. She watched the moon drifting into the horizon, and the silvery light splayed across the whole of Equestria. Dark shapes flitted in the skies, the weather ponies that gathered the coming day's clouds and storms, preparing everything for the sunrise.

"I had the dream again," Celestia said.

Luna froze. "The dream? As in…'The Dream?' Are you sure?" she asked, her voice shrinking.

Celestia closed her eyes, remembering the dream. The vivid details rushed back to her. "This is the fourth time in a thousand years," she said. "The last time it happened, Discord escaped his prison. And the time before that…"

"That won't happen again!" Even Luna jumped at the volume of her own outburst. She backpedaled, forcing stiff regality into her posture. Even still, her eyes shimmered with the threat of tears, and the quaver never left her voice. "It won't, Celestia. Nightmare Moon is gone, and she isn't coming back," Luna said.

Celestia nodded somberly. "I know, Luna. And my walk through the gardens confirmed that Discord is still decorating our lawn. If there is a threat, we may not be aware of it yet."

Disbelief tugged at the corners of Luna's mouth. She scoffed, and said, "If? Sister, that dream was what led us to find the Elements in the first place. Do you truly believe that it would return to you for no reason?"

"I believe," Celestia said firmly, "in putting my faith in my senses and my reason before any dream, however prophetic it might be. But," she added as Luna began to protest, "even if there is a new threat, Equestria's princesses will face it with all of the necessary precautions their subjects have come to expect of them. Won't we?"

A hard-fought smile emerged from Luna's concern. She sighed as she stepped up to the wall to join Celestia's survey of the countryside. "You speak as though I were one of your students."

Celestia laughed once. "Perhaps I've simply been teaching for so long that I see a lecture in every conversation. Or," she added, and leaned affectionately against Luna, "perhaps I simply missed my sister so much that I'll use any excuse to ramble on and on just so I can talk to her again."

The physical gesture surprised Luna for a moment. Then she closed her eyes and leaned back into Celestia. "I missed you too, sister. Even your nagging," she said.

They stood together in silence, watching the faint shadows cast by the moon grow longer. The darkness stretched like a thousand inky fingers reaching toward the castle. In the hour before dawn, the world grew absolutely quiet in anticipation of the coming day.

Luna's stewardship drew the moon to the horizon. The stars flared as the moon began to dip. Looking to her sister, Luna asked, "Are you ready?"

"I think it's time for another beautiful day in Equestria," Celestia agreed.

The sisters faced opposing horizons, standing tail to tail. In unison, their horns began to glow. Their magic reached unseen into the skies. Luna grasped the moon and the stars, taking hold of a thousand points of light at once. Celestia stretched her magic far beyond the horizon and felt the warm touch of the sun waiting for her beneath the edge of the world.

Working as one, Equestria's princesses turned night into day. The moon receded in the very instant that the sun emerged from the opposite direction. Luna pushed the stars away, leaving room for the colors of the dawn to spill across the sky. Fresh clouds glowed red and orange, blazing in the new morning.

Luna opened her eyes, breathing in the success of another night's completion. An epoch ago, such a thing would be just another mote of tedium in her eternal life. But since her return, she had come to savor these moments with her sister.

Then she saw one lingering mote of darkness still clinging to the horizon.

She frowned and looked back, wondering if something was wrong with the sun. But Celestia's unseen grasp lifted the sun at its usual pace. She turned back, and focused hard on the dark spot still clinging to the sky.

"Celestia…" she said.

Then the black mote pushed out against the dawn's colors. It was a lone spike at first, barely a line that began to press jaggedly through the sky. The line split, and then split again, becoming four separate cracks.

"Celestia!" Luna cried.

Her sister looked back at the commotion. When Celestia saw the broken sky, her heart froze in her chest. She watched the cracks slowly build up speed, threatening to branch off with each twist and turn. She had never seen anything quite like this phenomenon. But, like Luna, she knew exactly what it was. Those four crooked black lines were much, much worse than anything Celestia had ever feared in her eternal life.

Celestia fought for a breath. "No," she whispered hoarsely.

Luna backed away frantically to the other edge of the parapet, all but pressing herself against the old stone. "It's not possible. It isn't! I brought the moon and the stars down just like I always do! I didn't go too fast!" she insisted.

"Luna," Celestia said, fighting to keep her own voice level.

"This can't be happening," Luna sobbed. "I won't go back, Celestia! I won't let it take me again!"

"Luna!" Celestia's shout stopped her little sister in her tracks. Sweeping back her wings, Celestia prepared to take flight. "We need to secure the castle, and then gather the Elements of Harmony. Tell the guards to prepare an escort. We have to move quickly if we're to make it in time."

The growing cracks in the sky still captivated Luna's terrified eyes. "Wh-Where are we going?" she asked breathlessly.

Celestia couldn't help but look back as well. The icy feeling in her chest began to spread. "To Ponyville," she said.

* * *

**To Be Continued**


	2. The Vertical Rainbow Rail

The first rays of dawn filtered through library's windows, making the dusty air blaze bright and golden. Faint chirps drifted in soon after as the birds living in the library's branches began to stir. The birdsong sparked a flurry of other sounds—sleepy squirrels that chittered awake, bees that buzzed in a new search for flowers, and the stirring of leaves that moved aside for the stirring creatures.

Daylight crawled across the floors, sweeping past the wrapped blankets in the basket at the foot of the bed before climbing up the bedspread. Twilight Sparkle opened her eyes before the light could reach past her hooves. She rose in a tangle of mane, grinning at the fresh day that peered into her bedroom.

Other ponies would grumble at such an early rising, but Twilight preferred it. Time asleep was time away from her studies, and she hated wasting the opportunities her biblioarborous home afforded her. There wasn't a library in a hundred miles save for the private tomes locked away in Canterlot Castle that rivaled her collections. Even then, she had found a handful of volumes here that Canterlot lacked.

And besides, she couldn't live in the castle's libraries. The royal guards had informed her of that rule quite gruffly when she was a little filly, and had refused to budge no matter how deftly she argued.

Ponyville's library was her home and her life, and she could spend a happy lifetime reading each and every book under its leafy canopy. This morning, however, was not a morning for study. Today she had more important matters that required her attention.

A burst of excitement flung her from the bed. Her horn glowed as she spread her magic across the rumpled sheets, making the fabric crisp and flat. The bed was made by the time her hooves touched the floor. The sheets and blanket were tucked as tightly as a drumhead, tight enough to bounce a full bit halfway to the ceiling. One last nudge from her horn fluffed the pillow before centering it back where it belonged.

Twilight started for the stairs, but then thought better. Her back leg nudged the bundle still asleep at the foot of the bed. It rocked and grumbled, and then settled back onto the floor.

"Come on, Spike!" Twilight sang. "We don't want to be late!"

The blankets grumbled again, and said, "No, 'you' don't want to be late. I'm pretty okay with it."

She smirked, unable to muster any real irritation at his early morning grump. "Spike," she admonished him playfully. Her magic turned the blankets purple as she stripped the basket, leaving it bare to the dawn.

Spike moaned, shielding his closed eyes from the light. The baby dragon's scales glistened as he crawled from his basket. Awash in the colors of the new day, Spike became a living jewel, beautiful and iridescent and grouchy as he rubbed the sleep from his face.

"Come on, sleepyhead," she said, coaxing him toward the stairs. "We've got a great day ahead of us, and we don't want to miss a minute of it."

"If it's such a great day, then how come it can't start later?" Spike grumped. But he followed, plodding down the stairs.

As she entered the bathroom, she called, "Could you check my saddlebags again, please?"

"Sure. I mean, you only packed them three times," he shot back. Even still, Spike dug through her packs, ensuring that everything was where he and Twilight both knew it was, and both of them knowing full well that she would repack everything again after he was done.

Twilight brushed her mane into a presentable fashion, and then did the same for her teeth. After she was satisfied with the pony in her mirror, she trotted to the refrigerator and retrieved her special surprise of the day. It waited for her on the shelf in front of a half dozen takeout packages.

Her grin threatened to split her face as she lifted the lid of the sealed container, checking on the contents within. A perfect, picturesque dandelion salad waited inside the container, exactly as she had left it the night before. Tracking down the ingredients had cost her nearly three days, but every second had been worth it. She knew it would be a big hit.

As she admired the quartered tomatoes, the sprigs and cucumber slices, and the dandelion blossoms that garnished the top of the salad, Twilight couldn't help but marvel at the magic of books. She rarely prepared anything for herself more complicated than toasted oats, relying on restaurants to quell her appetite for anything else. Yet, with just two books—one a perspective on Ponyville cuisine written by a Canterlot historian, and the other a cookbook featuring a plump earth pony on its cover—Twilight the amateur had made this beautiful salad.

Cooking wasn't so different from magic. If you gathered the proper reagents, and followed the instructions, you were rewarded with the desired or delicious effect. The effort created something new and wonderful, so long as you trusted the book.

"Hello? Twilight?" Spike called from the doors, breaking Twilight's contemplation. He hoisted the strap of her saddlebags, and said, "Are you going to stare at it or bring it along?"

Chuckling, Twilight closed the salad container and levitated it to her bags. "I never thought I'd see the day when you'd be the one keeping me on schedule," she joked.

True to form, Twilight checked and repacked her bags. Then she plopped Spike on her back and trotted out of the library.

It was too early for many ponies to be awake, so the streets were largely empty. Twilight breathed in the quiet. It soaked into her, seeping into her bones. Ponyville's energy, its earnestness and vibrancy, was a large part of why she had grown to love the town.

But in the stillness of the morning, Twilight felt something else in the town. The town didn't feel empty. Even with everypony gone, Twilight felt a presence all around her. She heard it hum in her ears. She could feel the echoes of love and joy left by the ponies who had lived here their whole lives, ponies that had welcomed her into their lives the moment she stepped off that chariot. It was the soul of Ponyville.

It didn't take long for Twilight to reach the outskirts of town. The road began to rise and fall along gentle hills. The low sun spilled over the slopes, making them into little mounds of light that cast long, sickle-curved shadows at their base. With her back to the dawn, she followed her own shadow until Ponyville was just a few tall roofs peeking over the hilly horizon behind her.

A gust of wind raised a chorus of rustling leaves over the next hillock. Twilight smiled as she crested the hill and came into sight of Sweet Apple Acres. The smell of apple blossoms perfumed the air, promising a large harvest come the fall. A small, perfunctory fence wrapped around the corner of the sprawling orchard. Behind it rose the bushy tops of a hundred score of apple trees.

A few of the trees already sported a handful of plump, budding apples. Most of the orchard, though, was a galaxy of delicate white flowers dotting the leaf canopy. There were thousands of them. Millions, perhaps. The breeze tousled their feathery petals, carrying their scent for miles. If summer had to end, then Twilight was satisfied that it could end in such a beautiful manner.

The farmhouse was only a few minutes walk further down the road, but Twilight wasn't visiting the house. She hopped the fence, careful not to throw Spike by accident, and cut through the heart of the north field.

Not being a farmer, Twilight could hardly tell one tree from another. She navigated by memory, pointing in what she hoped was the right direction. "Through the Red Delicious, and then a slight right at the Honeycrisps," she repeated to herself.

Spike's gaze swiveled, glued to a budding tree as they passed. "None of these flowers are red, or honey-colored, or crispy," he said. "And I doubt they're delicious. At least not for dragons."

"I seriously doubt that apple trees are named for their flowers," Twilight said dryly. Even still, she couldn't help but wish for landmarks that were more familiar to ponies whose lives didn't revolve around apples.

He looked dreamily into the canopy and ran a claw over his mouth. "Now a ruby tree? That's red and delicious," he said.

She chuckled. "When I find a spell that makes plants grow mineral deposits, you'll be the first to know, Spike," she assured him.

Twilight was just about to suggest that they find the road again when the orchard abruptly thinned ahead of her. She and Spike emerged into a clearing at the far side of the orchard, a smooth patch of grass and flowers nearly three acres in size. The clearing sat at the base of a cliff formed from the barren, craggy side of a tall rise. It was as though some great force had lifted the earth here long ago, dividing the land by a hundred feet of perfectly vertical soil.

A checkered blanket flattened the grass at the foot of the cliff. The three ponies atop it waved to Twilight and shouted greetings. Smiling and waving back, Twilight crossed the field and joined her friends.

She set her packs at the edge of the blanket. Spike hopped down after them and began unpacking the supplies. "Hi! Is everypony already here?" Twilight asked. "I came as early as I could."

A scoff filled the apple blossom air, perfumed further still by exquisite fragrances bottled and peddled in Canterlot. "You're hardly late, darling," said Rarity. "If you were any earlier, it would still be dark."

Applejack chuckled as she took a seat next to Rarity. The orange earth pony kept a bushel of summer apples balanced atop her battered old Stetson.

With a shake of her head, she plopped the bushel onto the blanket. The heavy basket accidentally nudged the containers Spike had been emptying out of Twilight's saddle bags. The stack sprawled off of the blanket, forcing Spike to retrieve them, which he did grumblingly.

"Shoot," Applejack said, "if this were harvest time, we'd call this 'sleeping in.' I'd have half a field in the barn by now."

"Well, huzzah for your barn," Rarity said in a clipped tone. "But I, for one, needn't risk bags under my eyes unless there's good reason for it. I don't know why Rainbow Dash insisted on our meeting here at such an uncivilized hour."

Twilight fought hard to keep from laughing at the both of them. She couldn't think of two ponies more different than Rarity and Applejack. But she couldn't think of two better friends.

As Twilight bit into an apple, the bushel exploded. She choked and swallowed as Pinkie Pie breached the stack of apples from within the wooden tub. The spray of apples scattered the food Spike had been gathering. Throwing up his claws, Spike fell onto his tail and huffed.

"What do you think Rainbow Dash wants to show us?" the pink pony asked, balancing an apple on the tip of her nose.

Applejack and Rarity tried to hide their laughter while Twilight forced the last of the fruit out of her windpipe. Even coughing, she couldn't help but smirk at Pinkie's innocent antics.

"It must be a new trick," Rarity said. Her magic gripped an apple and began to peel its skin in a tight, neat spiral. "I saw a terrible mess of rainbows outside of town just yesterday. You'd think she was trying to paint the entire sky."

As Rarity pared and halved her apple, Applejack ate another in a single bite. "You know Rainbow Dash," she said through a mouthful. "She can't hold still long enough for all four hooves to settle onto the same patch of grass."

A spray of colors shot out of the sky and landed between the three ponies, startling a spray of chewed mush out of Applejack. As they landed, the colors coalesced into the familiar blue coat and tousled mane of Rainbow Dash. The pegasus flipped her colorful bangs from her eyes and greeted her friends with a playful look.

"The ground?" Rainbow Dash scoffed. "I am way past the ground, Applejack. The sky's my limit…until today," she added, and gave them a cryptic smile.

Pinkie Pie leapt to the mystery at once. She bounced weightlessly around Rainbow Dash, bombarding the pegasus with questions. "It is a trick, isn't it? Rarity was right! What are you going to do? Are you going to loop any loops? Does it have spins? Ooh! Ooh! What about clouds? Or flaming rings?" Pinkie gasped, clutching her own face in realization. "Or flaming cloud rings!"

Rainbow Dash grabbed Pinkie's mouth, stopping the pink pony in mid-bounce. "Yes!" she cried. Then, when Pinkie settled back to the ground, she said, "Yes, it's a new trick. And it's gonna knock everypony's socks off!"

Twilight smiled, ignoring her bare hooves. "I'm sure it'll be great, Rainbow Dash. But shouldn't we wait for Fluttershy? I'm sure she wouldn't want to miss it," Twilight said.

A smug smile pulled at Rainbow Dash's cheeks. "Don't worry about Fluttershy," she said, and tilted her head toward the cliff above them. "She's gonna have the best seat in the house. In fact, she's gonna be a footnote in pegasus history!"

"Pegasistory?" Pinkie gasped.

"Right, Fluttershy?" Rainbow Dash called to the empty air.

Movement high above them drew Twilight's gaze up the cliff face. At the top of the cliff, partially obscured by the rising sun, stood a large, irregular shape. It edged its way slowly toward the edge, lurching forward a few inches, and then struggling to lurch again.

As Twilight's eyes adjusted to the light, she recognized the shape as an amalgamation of large rocks wrapped together in a clumsy net of knotted rope. Twilight couldn't imagine why Rainbow Dash had lashed together such a mess.

She didn't realize what was driving the improvised boulder forward either, until a feathery voice drifted down from the top of the cliff. "Um, no," said the boulder. "I mean, yes. Well, maybe…"

Rubbing a hoof between her eyes, Rainbow Dash groaned, "Fluttershy! You're ready, right?"

Fluttershy emerged from atop the amalgam boulder. The wind caught her mane and waved it over the edge of the cliff as she looked down at her friends. Her soft voice could hardly cross the dizzying height between them. "It's just that I'm not sure this is such a good—"

The stammered doubt never reached Rainbow Dash, who turned excitedly back to her audience on the ground. "Because we're about to unveil the most undeniably unbelievable aerial feat that will make every pegasus in Equestria molt with envy!

"And," she added, speaking more to herself than her friends, "just maybe land me a spot on the Wonderbolts' roster…"

Rainbow Dash drew herself upright and puffed out her chest. Her wings spread wide, splaying her feathers into a dramatic backdrop. "The Vertical Rainbow Rail," she finished.

Silent stares followed Rainbow Dash's revelation. Finally, Pinkie said, "The What-ical What-bow What?"

Rainbow Dash fluttered backwards from the blanket and perched atop something half-hidden in the grass at the base of the cliff. Twilight frowned, noticing the wooden contraption for the first time. It was a long plank propped in the middle by a squat, oblong rock: a crude lever, Twilight realized. Then, as she noticed the lifted end of the lever pointed up the cliff, she began to put the pieces together.

"Using just a teensy boost from those rocks…" Rainbow Dash said, flicking her wings up toward Fluttershy and the makeshift boulder. "…and this wooden board thingy, I am going to fly straight up at top speed, painting a rainbow from the ground all the way up to the top of the sky. I'm gonna fly higher than any pony's ever been, and everypony within a hundred miles is gonna see it."

"Um, but Rainbow Dash…" Fluttershy squeaked.

Annoyance creased Rainbow Dash's face. "That is, if 'somepony' would get with the program!"

Fluttershy drifted down from her perch atop the boulder. Her wings flittered hesitantly, lowering her onto the upended side of the lever so lightly that the wood didn't even creak. Her gentle features carried nervousness, embarrassment, uncertainty, and more than a little worry.

"It's just that you're using twice as many rocks as you did in practice," Fluttershy mumbled, unable to lift her eyes to meet Rainbow Dash's accusing look.

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. "Duh!" she retorted. "I need twice as much weight to get twice as much of a boost, or I'll never get high enough. That's math, Fluttershy."

Several equations came to Twilight's mind that questioned Rainbow Dash's reasoning, but she bit her tongue as Fluttershy said, "I'm sorry. I just want to make sure that one of these big rocks we're using doesn't come loose and, um, crush you. But if you're sure…"

A large groan burgeoned in Rainbow Dash's chest. With visible effort, she swallowed the groan, and sighed instead. "Fine," she agreed. "Let's go check the rigging. But then you're pushing it off the cliff!"

As the two pegasi flew back up the cliff, Twilight felt the laughter she'd been trying to suppress bubble out of her. She wasn't the only one. "Well, she must be feeling pretty confident if she invited us all to watch her make the attempt today," Twilight said.

Applejack snorted as she plucked another apple from the scattered bushel. "She's always biting off more than she can chew," she said, and popped the apple in her mouth as if to illustrate. Her eyes brightened as she chewed noisily. "Y'all remember her 'Rainbow Corkscrew?' "

"Goodness, yes," Rarity said. "What a disaster. The weather went unchecked for almost a week before she recovered."

Pinkie Pie tittered. She waved her hoof through the air as if mimicking a flight pattern. The maneuver twisted dizzily as Pinkie swung her hoof to and fro across the blanket. "Zip, zip, zoom, zooooooooom, kee-rash!" she cried, and plunged her pretend flight into the apple bin. Then she rolled onto her back in a fit of giggles.

As Rarity and Applejack joined Pinkie's laughter, Twilight could only smile uncomfortably. She couldn't recall any Rainbow Corkscrews during her year in Ponyville. Hoping to change the subject, she reached out and tapped Spike on the tail. "Rainbow Dash isn't the only pony with a surprise today. Right, Spike?"

Since giving up on bringing order to the picnic, Spike had contented himself with focusing on the small satchel of gems he had smuggled along with the food. He swallowed a mouthful of ruby shards and nodded, handing Twilight her container from the saddlebags.

"I decided to read up on local cuisine," she said, bringing the container to the center of the blanket as the rest of her friends gathered close. "I wanted to try something that was unique to Ponyville. Only, since I'm not much of a cook, I couldn't manage the harder stuff. But the recipe book I found said that this was one of the oldest dishes to come from this region."

She opened the container with pomp and circumstance to rival Rainbow Dash's. The dandelion salad glistened, crisp and perfect enough to have leapt from its page in the cookbook. But Twilight saw confusion spread between her friends instead of the appreciation she had been expecting.

"Is something wrong with it?" Twilight asked, and tilted the container to look at her salad. "I made it exactly like the book said."

"It's fine, sugar cube," Applejack said reassuringly. "It's just that…" she trailed off, looking to Rarity for help.

The prim unicorn shifted uncomfortably as Twilight's confused look turned to her. "It is a very 'traditional' dish, Twilight. And it is from Ponyville. You have that part right exactly."

"Ponies around here used to make it a lot in the old days," Applejack admitted. "Back when times were tough and folks were getting hungry, they would eat whatever they could find. And before anypony put the plow to these here parts, the only thing that really grew was dandelions."

Pinkie Pie nodded sagely. "We used to eat dandelion salad a lot on the old rock farm. One year, when half our crop was wiped out in an avalanche, we had that stuff practically every day!"

"It certainly was an….'interesting' choice," Rarity said graciously. "You hardly ever see it these days."

"Oh." Twilight stared down at her salad, understanding. The salad had sounded so exotic when she had read about it. Canterlot didn't even have dandelions. Judging by the other ponies' reaction, she guessed now that the royal gardeners worked hard to keep it that way.

Reaching her magic into the container, Twilight pulled up a bite of the salad. The golden flower turned to mush in her mouth. Its dull flavor was lost quickly in the other greens of the salad. It wasn't terrible. But it wasn't anything she would go out of her way to make, let alone brag about to her friends. She had kept herself from even a single bite, wanting to share her first taste of this Ponyville treat with her friends. Now she felt silly for even bringing it.

Her face must have spoke volumes about what she thought of the salad. Applejack put on her best smile, and said, "Granny Smith used to make that for us whenever she thought we were getting too uppity. Always said she wanted to remind us of how good we had it."

After she swallowed, Twilight wished for a spell to remove the taste from her tongue. Its blandness lingered long after the salad reached her stomach. "Sorry," she said. "I guess next time I'll taste something before I try to make sompony else eat it."

"You couldn't have known, darling," Rarity assured her. "I've never even seen it made anywhere else."

"Yeah," Pinkie added brightly. "Sometimes I forget that you didn't grow up here."

The words made Twilight's stomach twist. Of course, if she had been raised in Ponyville, she would have known about the salad. She would have known about dandelions. She probably would have grown up complaining about eating them whenever some old timer got nostalgic for harder times, or when some foolish pony from fancy Canterlot decided to make an "authentic" Ponyville dish. She would have complained about it with the friends she would have made.

As Twilight started to seal the dish again, an orange hoof slid into the lip of the container, stopping her. She looked up to see Applejack with a ready plate. "Lemmie see some of that there roughage," Applejack said. "You got me feeling all sorts of nostalgic now."

Pinkie Pie stacked a plate of her own on top of Applejack's. "Yeah! And who knows? Maybe it'll taste even better now that I'm not rolling rocks all day."

Even as Twilight began to protest, the lid of the container glowed blue as Rarity's magic pulled it from her grasp. The other unicorn began dishing up scoops of salad for all of them, taking an especially large one for herself. "Given all the sweets we've brought, I think it's quite sensible of you to bring something green, Twilight," she said, and winked.

Twilight fought against the plate pressed into her hooves, but the effort was halfhearted at best. "You guys…" she said, embarrassed.

"Better eat it before it gets too warm!" Pinkie Pie chirped, and scooped up half the salad in a single mouthful. More seriously, she added, "Trust me."

Smiling, Twilight joined her friends in eating a truly mediocre salad. Seeing the ponies she cared about most eating her silly mistake without a single complaint might have brought her to tears. Then again, it might have been the aftertaste of dandelion.

After enduring three bites, Twilight set the plate aside. "You know, sometimes I feel like I missed out on so much before I came here," she admitted.

Applejack swallowed hard and then gave her a reproachful look. "Now, sugar cube…"

"But," Twilight said quickly, silencing her friend with a grin, "I finally know where I belong. And there's nowhere else I'd rather be."

Her friends each returned her grin. "And for the record, it don't make a lick of difference to us where you grew up, as long as you're here now," Applejack added. "Shoot, without you, the rest of us would never be as close as we are now."

"That's right," Rarity agreed. "Why, if it weren't for you, I would hardly be friends with these two."

The comment earned her disbelieving stares from everypony else.

"…for which I'm eternally thankful, of course!" Rarity added hurriedly, smiling a little too hard.

She didn't have time to elaborate before Pinkie Pie stretched across the entire blanket, drawing them all into an embrace. Twilight felt her ribs creak as the pink pony squeezed them all together. "That's right!" Pinkie said. "Ponyville wouldn't be the same without Twilight, and neither would we."

A pointed clearing of a scaly throat drew their attention across the blanket. Spike sat at the edge of the picnic, glaring sourly at the group hug. His sack of gems sat forgotten beside him.

Smirking, Applejack grabbed her Stetson by the brim and flipped it onto Spike's head. "And we'd all be extra-lost without the best dragon this side of…well, anywhere," she said.

Applejack used the hat like a lasso, pulling Spike into their waiting embrace. His sourness evaporated in an instant as he hugged them back. "Darn right," he said.

"Hey!" Rainbow Dash's cry came from above. Her sharp tone drew the other ponies apart and yanked their attention to the top of the cliff, where the pegasus stood atop the amalgam boulder. "Are you ponies gonna sit there all day hoof-deep in mush, or are you ready for some real action?"

Twilight lined up with the others at the edge of the blanket and waited attentively for Rainbow Dash to begin. Once her audience was sufficiently awed, Rainbow Dash descended onto the lever, settling lightly onto the end of the plank.

"All right!" Rainbow Dash called. Her whole body coiled as she looked up into the sky. Her teeth flashed in a fierce grin. "Counting down from: Five! Four! Three! Two! One!"

Her legs trembled, ready to throw herself off the end of the lever as it flung her into the open air. In practice tests, the smaller rocks had thrown her like a catapult. With the weight quintupled, Rainbow Dash knew she would be halfway to the stratosphere before she even had to flap once.

Except the rock never came.

"One!" Rainbow Dash shouted. "One! ONE!" she bellowed, stretching the word across nearly ten seconds.

No rock.

Straightening, Rainbow Dash glared up the cliff face, pushing the multicolored bangs from her eyes. The boulder above offered her an obligatory wiggle, but it clearly had no intentions of moving anytime soon.

"What part of 'ONE' don't you get?" she snapped.

The boulder wiggled again, and wailed in Fluttershy's voice, "It's too heavy! I can't!"

Rainbow Dash dragged her hoof across her face in frustration. "Oh, for… Hold on!" she grumbled.

She shot up the side of the cliff, becoming a blur of colors. The blur circled the boulder once before swooping upon the blanket. Twilight and the others blinked hard against the sudden blast of air. When they opened their eyes again, Fluttershy was sitting among them, the pegasus's eyes spinning at the sudden relocation.

As her eyes spun back into focus, Fluttershy offered her friends an embarrassed smile. "Hi, girls," she said. "Oh! Did somepony bring dandelion salad? I've never seen it made with tomatoes before."

They all heard grunting and straining echo from the top of the cliff. The amalgam boulder teetered dangerously. Rainbow Dash's colorful tail flicked behind the boulder as the pegasus worked the tremendous weight over the precipice. The sound of ropes creaking against the shifting weight of the rocks was obvious even from such a distance. Then, with one last, defiant hesitation, the boulder tilted over the edge of the cliff and plummeted toward the crude lever below.

"Ha!" Rainbow Dash barked, and then took off like a shot. Her colors streamed behind her as she raced straight down. She flew with such incredible speed that Twilight wondered if they were about to see a sonic rainboom happen from just a few feet away.

At the last second, Rainbow Dash threw out her wings, pushing against the air. Her hooves thudded into the plank hard enough to leave bruises in the wood. She stood upon the lever's end for a single instant, a poised coil of trembling muscle and hardened eyes. If not for her fluttering mane, she would have been a statue.

Then the boulder slammed into the upraised half of the lever. The net of rocks sagged into a shapeless lump the instant it struck the ground, flinging the occupied end of the lever into the air. Rainbow Dash vanished. A smattering of feathers spiraled in the air where she had been.

The wind howled around Rainbow Dash. She rocketed into the sky, stretching her hooves ahead of her. She squinted against the rush, tears beading in her stinging eyes. In the edge of her vision, the ground fell away, becoming a featureless patchwork of greens and browns far beneath her.

The second she felt her stomach lurch, the pegasus set her wings to work. Rainbow Dash pounded the air, pushing herself higher and faster than she ever had. Her Sonic Rainboom had gravity on its side. But this trick fought gravity with every inch of its ascent. Rainbow Dash knew that for this new stunt to work, if she were to finally become the legend she had always known herself to be, then she would have to fly like she had never flown before.

Cold began to seep into her coat all too quickly. The frigid air threatened to turn her muscles into frozen, knotted cramps. Each cloud she plunged through felt like icy molasses, their tendrils clinging to her mane and tail. But she ignored the cold and the pain, and pushed harder. She flapped faster. She soared higher.

"Come on," she demanded through gritted teeth. "Come on! Break the sky!"

Far below, Twilight held her breath and watched her friend's daredevil stunt taking shape. Any doubts Twilight might have had about the pegasus's boasts left her in an excited sigh as a column of beautiful colors climbed before her. It was just as Rainbow Dash had described, and more.

The colors in Rainbow Dash's wake didn't simply fade as they usually did. Instead, each color began to spread, causing the entire column to ripple up after its source as the rainbow ballooned out across the sky. Each cloud the pegasus threaded became a nimbus of colors that burst out from the column like a ring of dazzling, silent fireworks.

"She's doing it! She's doing it!" Pinkie Pie cheered.

Twilight felt her heart racing as she watched Rainbow Dash climb higher still. She grinned, thrilling at the rush of color and speed. The pegasus was little more than a dot now, impossible to pick out against the morning sky if not for her brilliant contrail.

Then something else caught Twilight's notice. She saw a flash of motion at the very edge of her vision, a flicker of something else in the sky. By the time she could turn her eyes away from the vertical rainbow, the motion had already stretched before her, crossing the sky even faster than Rainbow Dash could climb.

It was a crack. Black and long and pencil-thin, it moved in a jagged pattern, zigzagging with incredible speed. In the space of two blinks, the crack was already stretched from horizon to horizon, emerging from somewhere behind the distant Royal Castle of Canterlot to vanish somewhere far beyond Equestria's borders.

The ponies' cheers fell to silence at the sight of the jagged blackness. Even at a distance, they could see that Rainbow Dash had noticed the phenomenon as well. The pegasus had stopped in midair, and the colors behind her were already evaporating, giving Twilight a more clear look at what was happening at the edge of the sky.

"Whoa…" Applejack said, clutching her hat to her chest in shock. "She really did it."

"She…she broke the sky," whispered Fluttershy. The grounded pegasus sounded on the verge of tears.

Twilight's mouth struggled to form words. "That's…It's not…" she sputtered. "She couldn't have! The sky doesn't work like that!"

"Not anymore, it doesn't," Spike muttered, falling backwards in awe. "The princess is gonna be pretty steamed about this one."

Rarity, her voice feathery with daze, said, "Do you suppose we could cover it with clouds? It might not fix the matter, of course, but at least it would look better. That would be a start."

With clumsy fluttering, Rainbow Dash descended onto the blanket next to them. The normally brave daredevil was a trembling mess as Twilight and the others turned to look at her. She just looked at the cracked sky, and then at her friends, and then back to the sky. "I…How…Huh…?" she babbled.

Rainbow Dash rocked as Pinkie Pie looped herself around the pegasus's neck. The pink pony squealed and gestured at Rainbow Dash's handiwork. "Rainbow Dash, you did it! You made pegasistory! I don't think anypony's ever broken the sky before! Ooh! Do you think they'll give you a statue?"

Twilight ignored her friends' reactions and focused on the phenomenon high above them. She knew it couldn't be a crack in the sky. The sky wasn't some physical barrier, at least not one that anypony could break, regardless of how fast she flew. Something else was happening, Twilight knew. Unfortunately, that was all she knew.

"We need to know more about what's going on here," Twilight announced, silencing the others.

"Maybe I could fly up and take another look?" Rainbow Dash suggested. Her voice was still shaky, but she seemed to have collected some of her wits again.

Shaking her head, Twilight said, "I don't think anypony should go poking it before we have some idea of what it is. Let's get to the library. There might be something in my collection that can tell us what's going on. Come on!"

The picnic lay behind them, forgotten, as Twilight led her friends through the orchard at a gallop. She knew she could do something about this situation if she could just find the right book. The knowledge and wisdom of a thousand ponies smarter than her lived in her tree. She just had to find the right pony, the right book, to solve this.

Glimpses of the crack pierced the thick foliage of the orchard. As Twilight ran, she watched the crack's growth strobe above her. Little by little, the crack expanded. New branches grew from its sides, separating and recombining into a web that crawled inexorably across the whole of the sky.

She swallowed hard and ran faster, praying for enough time to find the right book before it was too late.

* * *

Canterlot Castle screamed beneath Celestia's hooves. Her eyes were glued to the horror above her, yet she couldn't help but hear the cries of terror and pain. Each shrill voice twisted her heart tighter in her chest.

She wanted to close her eyes and block her ears to it all. She wanted to run, to fly, to flee across the horizon and never look back. That was the fear in her, she told herself. It was the raw, primal part of her that recognized a predator far beyond her ability to overcome, the part of her that demanded she save herself. Unable to silence the cries of her people, Celestia instead silenced the small, pathetic voice inside her that begged her to save herself. Her subjects came first, always.

"What is keeping him?" Luna demanded. Like Celestia, the younger princess wore a set of saddlebags cinched tight above her flank. Luna fidgeted against the packs, glancing over the edge of the tower toward the courtyard below.

Celestia joined her sister in looking over the edge. Ponies were streaming out of the castle in droves, running out into the streets. From their lofty perch, Celestia could see that they would find little sanctuary in the rest of Canterlot.

The darkness spreading from the last mote of night had already enveloped most of the sky above their city. Already, thick bands of shadow were dripping down from the broadening crack, moving like viscous night toward the gleaming ivory metropolis.

The first drippings had already landed in the gardens of the castle. Celestia's heart sank as she watched the lush greenery begin to brown. Whole fields of blossoms and shrubs turned black, crackling so loudly that the sound of their dying nearly drowned out the panic in the castle.

Forcing herself to look away, Celestia said, "He won't let us down. As soon as we see his chariot leave, we can follow to—"

"Your majesties!"

The cry turned Celestia and Luna away from the parapet. They stared in confusion as Shining Armor burst through the stairwell door and slammed it behind him. His horn glowed violet at the door, covering it in a sheen of magic. The spell solidified an instant before something began pounding on the door from the other side, striking with enough force to crack the wood in a single blow.

"Captain, where is your chariot?" Luna demanded.

"Begging her majesty's pardon," Shining Armor gasped, and poured more power into his protective spell. Violet light spilled into the cracks in the door, reinforcing it against whatever battered against the opposite side. "My chariot team was…they were…"

Celestia's voice dropped to a whisper. "They were taken," she said.

"That's as good a word for it as any," said Shining Armor. "Something happened to them. They…changed. They cut themselves free of the chariot and began attacking me."

His eyes were wide with fear. Even still, he kept his tone respectful and collected. Celestia expected nothing less from the best guard she had seen in a hundred years. "Then we shall carry you ourselves, Captain. It is imperative we reach Ponyville as quickly as possible."

Shining Armor grinned sardonically. The glow of his horn intensified, and the door to the stairwell become a solid sheet of violet light. "Begging her other majesty's pardon," he said, "but I don't think that will be possible. That's my chariot team attempting to reach us now. And it sounds like they've picked up a few others along the way."

"Captain, we cannot leave without you!" Luna insisted. "If we cannot light the Elements of Harmony in time, you are—"

"I am…" Shining Armor snapped. Luna was so shocked by the proper pony's interruption that she fell silent. Grunting, he said, "I am the Captain of the Royal Guard. If these things get to you because you're carrying me, then I'll have failed in every sense of my duty. Plus, I'll be out of a job," he added through a forced grin.

"Captain…" Luna began again, softer.

A stray ribbon of violet light drew a scroll from Shining Armor's golden plate mail. He pressed the scroll through the air until Celestia's magic took it from his. "I've prepared a contingency. Just power the scroll, and you should have everything you need."

Celestia nodded. She secured the scroll in her saddlebags, and said, "Thank you, Captain. Once we're clear, retreat to safety. Gather as many other survivors as you can and organize the evacuation. If all goes well, this situation will be resolved in a matter of hours."

Shining Armor nodded, meeting Celestia's cool gaze. Behind him, the pounding grew stronger still. Flashes of light pulsed against his protective spell as the last of the door fell away, leaving only magic to stand between the princesses and his attackers. Both he and Celestia knew it was unlikely he would escape, much less be around to follow her other orders. He simply nodded.

But as Celestia and Luna stepped up to the parapet to take flight, Shining Armor called out, "Princess?" When she turned back, Celestia saw a desperate plea swimming in her captain's eyes. "Take care of Twilight for me. Please?" he said.

It was Celestia's turn to nod in silence. Then she and Luna took to the sky, soaring high above the panic and the screams.

Shining Armor watched the princesses fade into the blackening sky. Only when they had vanished from sight did he allow himself a breath of relief. Whatever else happened, he felt reassured that he had given Equestria its best chance for survival.

Then he felt at the magical barrier behind him, and frowned. The brutal pounding had ceased, leaving the stairwell behind it silent and still. Something cold pressed against his magic, but the feeling wasn't forceful. It probed the barrier with an icy touch. It tested his spell, tracing the latticework of violet magic tied to his horn.

The silence broke as a single set of hooves climbed the stairs. Shining Armor's ears strained through the barrier, wondering who or what was climbing to face him after the small army had failed.

A single word slithered through the barrier, cool and alluring. "Shiny…"

Shining Armor felt his heart seize as he recognized the voice. "Cadance? Cadance, what are you doing here?" he asked.

"I'm here to help." Her voice was calm, almost playful. "Let me in."

He didn't understand. "Cadance, how did you get here? Are you all right? Did anypony hurt you?" he said.

"I'm fine, Shiny," came the reply. "I want to help you. Let me in."

Tears threatened his eyes as Shining Armor unwove his barrier spell. He had forced himself to focus entirely on gathering the Elements for the princesses, on securing this last part of the castle, only because the unknown fate of his wife had been too much for him to face. The sound of her voice, the sound of her alive and intact, sent a wave of joy cascading through him.

The violet barrier evaporated. The stairwell beyond was dark, darker than anything Shining Armor had ever seen. He squinted into the blackness, searching for any sign of his true love. "Cadance?" he said.

The blackness leapt forward and swallowed him whole.

* * *

**To Be Continued**


End file.
